Thursday, July 14, 2016

It's a bad sign...

when you wake up and see your tent resembling an igloo.

My plan for the Cloud Peak Wilderness was to hike to the top of its namesake. Easy enough right? The Weather Channel promised me nothing but skin cancer causing sun. In other words great conditions for summiting the 13,166" mountain.

I went to sleep the night before my hike with no weather concerns. Then I heard the gentle drip, drip, drip sound of Wet Death. It was followed by a Ginger Baker drum solo beating down on my rip stop nylon. Hmmm. If there's a cold rain at 10,100" then it must be White Death above me.

Sure enough, from my lower vantage point the mountain was looking like a Ku Klux Klan gathering. One big white cap. I took the Polly Anna approach. Maybe by the time I summited, the snow will be melted off. Good idea except there was more gray matter in the sky than blue matter. It wasn't warm either.

Cloud Peak is comprised of angular granite boulders ranging in size from toasters to refrigerators. None of the stones reside on a level plain. Add slick White Death and ice to the blend and it makes for a dangerous rock hopping experience. I split my shins a few times when I landed wrong. At least this time, there was no spurting blood.

I persevered to within 100" of the summit. At this point I had been in motion for four hours. There were no obvious straightforward routes to the top. (Lots of snow!) the wind was in tantrum mode , my shoes and gloves were iced over and ominous clouds were gathering. I retreated. The Mojo wasn't right.

I get to live another day.

BTW. My first gig out of Forestry School was in the Bighorn National Forest. That was 41 years ago. I've come full-circle once again.

Good night from Ten Sleep, Wyoming

Jeff

PS. Many of these pix were shot on the day I should have been on the peak.

About Me

I was born to humble, yet poor Jewish immigrants from the Old World. Nah, we won’t go back that far. I’m a 60 year old retired firefighter who spent 28 years responding to various types of fires, lots of medical emergencies, heaps of car wrecks and one escaped parakeet in a tree. I describe my present living situation this way: My few worldly possessions reside in Boulder, Colorado with my nephew and his wife. The rest of my stuff (three backpacks, three bicycles, two laptops, heaps of maps, fig bars, bananas and cold beer) fits into Barley the Van. I now travel, a lot. I'll try and describe it all on this blog. I'm hoping one day Ford Motors notices this Blog and invites me and Barley the Van to appear in a commercial. If you enjoy this blog, please pass it along to friends and family. If you don't like it, pass it along to your enemies. PS. Are there any wandering, wondering women with wanderlust out there? PPS. Have I ever mentioned I once wrote a Gold Medal IPPY award winning book?
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